APHIS Proposes Higher AQI Fees for Vessel, Rail, Truck, Air
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service this week proposed updates and amendments to its user fee regulations under its agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) program. The agency is proposing increases to its fees for certain AQI services provided in connection with certain cargo and commercial vessels, railroad cars, trucks and aircraft arriving at U.S. ports. It would also adjust the caps on prepaid fees associated with commercial trucks and railroad cars, remove certain fee exemptions “that are no longer justifiable based upon pathway analyses of risk” and restructure the treatment monitoring fee, among other fee changes. Comments are due Oct. 10.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The proposed changes would increase the current AQI fee rate for commercial cargo vessels from the current $825 fee to $3,219.29 by Jan. 1, 2024, and eventually to $3,557.18 in 2027. APHIS said its proposed fee structure “better accounts for the level of effort it takes to inspect the average ship and its cargo and reflects the expanded capacity of modern container ships.” Although the fee would increase “by 331 percent to $3,557.18 by 2028,” the agency said it would “represent a fraction of the value of goods being imported by vessel generally (0.02 percent).”
APHIS said it’s considering whether to eliminate the existing vessel fee exemption for commercial barges from Canada carrying “large” shipments. “Because we do not have explicit data on international barge traffic revenue, profit margins, and the competitive landscape affecting arrivals of currently-exempt barges from Canada, we cannot make specific conclusions as to how the collection of this user fee will affect individual businesses,” APHIS said. “We are inviting the public to provide data relevant to these and other questions concerning the operation of currently-exempt barges from Canada.”
The AQI fee rate for commercial cargo railroad cars would increase from the current $2 fee to $5.81 in 2024 and eventually to $8.72 in 2027. Even though APHIS is proposing a “total increase of approximately 337 percent, the commercial cargo railroad car fee would still be the equivalent of approximately 0.029 percent of the value of goods being imported by railroad car,” the agency said. It added the proposed fee change “seems likely to have a limited impact on commercial cargo rail operations.”
Commercial truck fees would increase from the current level of $7.29 to $11.40 in 2024 and eventually to $15.55 in 2027. The proposed 114% increase in fees from the current year’s fee to 2028 would result in a fee “the equivalent of 0.034 percent of the average value of goods imported by truck,” APHIS said. Although “limitations in the amount and nature of data available to the agency make it difficult to develop specific conclusions as to how these proposed fee changes will affect” trucks, APHIS said it expects the impact will “likely” be limited.
Commercial aircraft fees would increase from the current $225 fee to $288.41 in 2024 and eventually to $373.68 in 2027. APHIS said the proposed 66% total increase in fees from this year to 2028 would result in a fee that is “still the equivalent of 0.05 percent of the value of goods being imported by air.” It also said the user fee “constitutes a small portion of the expenses associated with commercial aircraft,” adding it’s likely to “have a limited impact on aircraft operators.”